According to orthodox Egyptology, the Sphinx was built around 2500 BCE as a memorial to the pharaoh Khafre. In this provocative collaboration from two Egyptology outsiders, Robert M. Schoch, Ph.D., and Robert Bauval combine their decades of research to show how the Sphinx is thousands of years older than the conventional Egyptological timeline.

Description

About Origins of the Sphinx

New research and evidence that the Sphinx is thousands of years older than previously thought

• Contrasts what Egyptologists claim about the Sphinx with historical accounts and new research including reanalysis of seismic studies and updates to Schoch’s water weathering research and Bauval’s Orion Correlation Theory

• Examines how the Sphinx is contemporaneous with Göbekli Tepe, aligned with the constellation Leo, and was recarved during the Old Kingdom era of Egypt

• Reveals that the Sphinx was built during the actual historical Golden Age of ancient Egypt, the period known in legend as Zep Tepi

No other monument in the world evokes mystery like the Great Sphinx of Giza. It has survived the harsh climate of Egypt for thousands of years and will remain long after our own civilization is gone. According to orthodox Egyptology, the Sphinx was built around 2500 BCE as a memorial to the pharaoh Khafre. Yet this “fact” has scant to no supportive evidence. When was the Sphinx really built and, most importantly, why?

In this provocative collaboration from two Egyptology outsiders, Robert M. Schoch, Ph.D., and Robert Bauval combine their decades of research to show how the Sphinx is thousands of years older than the conventional Egyptological timeline and was built by a long forgotten pre-Pharaonic civilization. They examine the known history of the Sphinx, contrasting what Egyptologists claim with prominent historical accounts and new research, including updates to Schoch’s geological water weathering research and reanalysis of seismic studies. Building on Bauval’s Orion Correlation Theory, they investigate the archaeoastronomical alignments of the monuments of the Giza Plateau and reveal how the pyramids and Sphinx were built to align with the constellations of Orion and Leo. Analyzing the evidence for a significantly older construction phase at Giza and the restoration and recarving of the Sphinx during the Old Kingdom era, they assert that the Sphinx was first built by an advanced pre-Pharaonic civilization that existed circa 12,000 years ago on the Giza Plateau, contemporaneous with the sophisticated Göbekli Tepe complex.

The authors examine how the monuments at Giza memorialize Zep Tepi, the Golden Age of legend shown here to be an actual historical time period from roughly 10,500 BCE through 9700 BCE. Moving us closer to an understanding of the true age and purpose of the Great Sphinx, Schoch and Bauval provide evidence of an early high civilization witnessed by the Great Sphinx before the end of the last ice age.

Excerpt

Book Excerpt

2

The Sands of Time

Robert M. Schoch

Revealing the Sphinx

The Nineteenth Century

The most significant and extensive excavations of the Great Sphinx took place in the first half of the nineteenth century. This was an era before the use of photography in archaeology and there was rarely any systematic recording or preservation of what came out of the ground or was found in or among the ancient structures. Indeed, the early archaeologists and Egyptologists were often not averse to applying brute force in their attempts to penetrate the ancient secrets. Thus, to cite one of the most famous examples, Colonel Richard William Howard Vyse (1784-1865) used gunpowder within the Great Pyramid to blast passages into the so-called Relieving Chambers above the King’s Chamber.

The Great Sphinx did not require quite so harsh an excavation, and exploration techniques were applied most likely because they were not suitable to the shifting sands that had over the millennia buried the statue. Blasting with gunpowder would not only have been inefficient, but counterproductive.

The first and greatest excavations of the Sphinx in modern times were carried out by a former mercantile sea captain from Genoa, Giovanni Battista Caviglia (1770-1845), who arrived in Egypt in December 1816 and, fascinated by the Sphinx and pyramids, worked on and off at Giza for the next twenty odd years, beginning with an excavation of the Great Sphinx in 1817. For a time, Caviglia actually took up residence in the Great Pyramid, using Davison’s Chamber as his “apartment.”

The Great Sphinx and Giza Pyramids have attracted more than their fair share of odd thinkers over the centuries, and Caviglia was no exception. He was immersed in occultism, mysticism, and his own brand of religious fundamentalism and Old Testament literalism. Caviglia was certain that encoded in the antiquities of Egypt, and Giza in particular, lay many esoteric, religious, and scientific secrets--if only they could be interpreted correctly. His excavations and studies were not undertaken lightly as simply a hobby or a means to supply European museums with prize works of ancient art, but with the idea that the key to deep and profound knowledge would be discovered.

Caviglia was the first person since ancient times to oversee a major clearance of the accumulated sand around the Great Sphinx. The French savants under Napoleon Bonaparte during his invasion of Egypt (1798-1799) had been aware that there was the body of a beast under the sand, as they cleared and studied the contours of the back, but they had not carried out full-scale excavations.

The truth concerning the extent of any French excavations is unclear. Regarding a supposed door, it is possible that they did carry out excavations and came upon at least the upper portion of the granite “Dream Stela” of Tuthmosis IV (ca. 1400 BCE) that sits to this day between the paws of the Sphinx, and perhaps this was mistaken for a door.

Caviglia began in early 1817 by excavating at the left (northern) shoulder of the Sphinx. His workmen were digging through loose sand and, according to Salt, more than half the sand removed each day would be blown back by the wind at night. Furthermore, despite utilizing a framework of planks to hold back the sand, the situation was incredibly perilous; one false move or accident could have resulted in someone being smothered to death in an avalanche of sand. Ultimately this first attempt at excavation had to be abandoned, but not before Caviglia’s laborers had reached the base of the Sphinx by creating a trench that measured twenty feet across the top but narrowed to a mere three feet at the bottom. Along the side of the trench a section of the body of the Sphinx was revealed, where they could make preliminary observations.

The external surface of the body in this part was found to be composed of irregularly sized stones, built up with much care, and covered with red paint, with no very clear indications of form, but having three protruding ledges, one below the other, sufficiently broad for a man to walk upon, that formed in all probability the lines of the mantle, or dress . . . (Salt, in Usick and Manley 2007, 65).

These irregularly sized stones and the ledges that were observed probably relate to the very ancient weathering and erosion to the body of the Sphinx that was subsequently repaired in later ancient times. There is evidence that at various times the Great Sphinx, either in its entirety or selected portions, was painted. Alternatively, some of the supposed “red paint” may also be natural mineral streaks, although in this case I suspect that Caviglia had found actual traces of red paint on various ancient repairs to the Sphinx.

During the months of March through June of 1817 Caviglia employed sixty to a hundred laborers each day to undertake large-scale excavations of the paws and body of the Sphinx. These excavations result in a number of important discoveries. The first was fragments of a giant plaited beard that had once belonged to the Sphinx. Some of the stone fragments included plaited beard hair on one side, and on a side at right angles to the plaited hair occurred various carved hieroglyphics and kneeling human figures. Other fragments of the beard and supporting masonry were found, but whether the Sphinx originally had a beard and when the beard fragments found by Caviglia were put in place (could they be New Kingdom additions?) remain open questions. We must remember that the Sphinx has been heavily modified, reworked, and restored numerous times in its long history.

Table of Contents

Table of content

Acknowledgments

Preface Robert M. Schoch

ONEThe Great Paradox Robert Bauval

TWOThe Sands of Time Robert M. Schoch

THREEKhafre: To Be or Not To Be?Robert Bauval

FOUR A Case of Mistaken Identity? Robert Bauval

FIVEHorus Who Dwells in the Horizon Robert Bauval

SIX The Place Where the Gods Are Born Robert Bauval

SEVENThe Writing on the Wall Robert M. Schoch

EpilogueRobert M. Schoch

Appendix 1The “Paradigm Police” and the Upside-Down Worldview of an Authoritative “Expert” Robert Bauval

Appendix 2The Orion Correlation Theory: Can It Be Falsified? Robert Bauval

Appendix 3The Ancient Egyptians and the Zodiacal Constellation of Leo Robert Bauval

Appendix 4The Sacred Mounds of the Memphite Region Robert Bauval

Appendix 5Text of the Dream Stela Translation by J. H. Breasted, 1906

Appendix 6Redating the Great Sphinx of Giza: The Original 1992 Paper Robert M. Schoch

Appendix 7Geological Evidence Pertaining to the Age of the Great Sphinx, Including Replies to the CriticsRobert M. Schoch

Appendix 8Was the Great Sphinx Surrounded by a Moat? Was the Sphinx Originally Anubis? Robert M. Schoch

Appendix 9Controversies concerning the End of the Last Ice Age Robert M. Schoch

Bibliography

About the Authors

Index

Author Bio

Robert M. Schoch, Ph.D., a tenured faculty member at Boston University, earned his doctorate in geology and geophysics at Yale University. Known for his research on the Sphinx, he is the author of several books, including Forgotten Civilization. Egyptian-born Robert Bauval began studying Egyptology in 1983. The author of numerous books, including The Orion Mystery and Black Genesis, he lives in Torremolinos, Spain.

Reviews

Reviews

Book Praise

Book Praise

“For a quarter-century, Schoch’s analysis of weathering at Giza and Bauval’s archaeoastronomic discoveries have challenged the consensus on prehistory, not merely of Egypt but of the world.
This book expertly summarizes their case and its triumphant vindication in the 12,000-year-old sanctuary of Göbekli Tepe. The question is no longer whether they are right but where archaeology
should go from here.” Joscelyn Godwin, author ofAtlantis and the Cycles of Time

Back Cover

Back Cover Copy

ANCIENT MYSTERIES

No other monument in the world evokes mystery like the Great Sphinx of Giza. It has survived the harsh climate of Egypt for thousands of years and will remain long after our own civilization is gone. According to orthodox Egyptology, the Sphinx was created around 2500 BCE as a memorial to the pharaoh Khafre. Yet this “fact” has scant to no supportive evidence. When was the Sphinx really carved and, most importantly, why?

In this provocative collaboration from two Egyptology outsiders, Robert M. Schoch, Ph.D., and Robert Bauval combine their decades of research to demonstrate how the Sphinx is thousands of years older than the conventional Egyptological timeline and was carved by a long forgotten pre-Pharaonic civilization. They reexamine the known history of the Sphinx, contrasting what Egyptologists claim with prominent historical accounts and new research, including updates to Schoch’s geological water weathering research and reanalysis of seismic studies. Building on Bauval’s Orion Correlation Theory, they investigate the archaeoastronomical alignments of the monuments of the Giza Plateau and reveal how the pyramids and Sphinx were aligned with the constellations of Orion and Leo. Analyzing the evidence for a significantly older construction phase at Giza and the restoration and recarving of the Sphinx during the Old Kingdom era, they assert that the Sphinx was first carved by an advanced pre-Pharaonic civilization that existed circa 12,000 years ago in Egypt, contemporaneous with the sophisticated Göbekli Tepe complex in Turkey.

The authors examine how the monuments at Giza memorialize Zep Tepi, the Golden Age of legend shown here to be an actual historical time period from roughly 10,500 BCE (or earlier) to 9700 BCE. Moving us closer to an understanding of the true age and purpose of the Great Sphinx, Schoch and Bauval provide evidence of an early high civilization witnessed by the Great Sphinx before the end of the last ice age.

ROBERT M. SCHOCH, Ph.D., a tenured faculty member at Boston University, earned his doctorate in geology and geophysics at Yale University. Known for his research on the Sphinx, he is the author of books both technical and popular, including Forgotten Civilization.

Egyptian-born ROBERT BAUVAL, a construction engineer, earned his Higher National Diploma at the University of the South Bank, London, UK. He worked in many countries in the Middle East and Africa and began studying Egyptology in 1983. The author of numerous bestsellers, including The Orion Mystery and Black Genesis, he lives in Spain.

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